Despite its substantial beginning, the insurance business was still far from stabilized. Standardization was spotty, and many problems arose. It was at this point that the National Convention of Insurance Commissioners (NCIC) appointed a committee of their members to draft a definition of “Group Life Insurance” in order to address the abundance of questions and concerns.

The convention invited the cooperation of the Actuarial Society of America (ASA) and asked it to select a committee to represent insurance companies. Mr. James D. Craig, then Assistant Actuary of the Metropolitan, was a member of this committee. In December 1917, the NCIC adopted its committees report recommending the following definition for “group life insurance,” which, in substance, was subsequently enacted into the laws of most of the larger states:

“Group life insurance is that form of life insurance covering not fewer than fifty employees, with or without medical examination, written under a policy issued to the employer, the premium on which is to be paid by the employer or by the employer and employees jointly, and insuring only all of his employees, or all of any class or classes determined by conditions pertaining to the employment, for amounts of insurance based upon some plan which will preclude individual selection, for the benefit of persons other than the employer; provided, however, that when the premium is to be paid by the employer and employee jointly and the benefits of the policy are offered to all eligible employees not less than seventy-five per centum of such employees may be so insured.”

This soundly phrased definition has served until this day as the basic code for underwriting this form of insurance, with only a few minor modifications. It clarified the main differences between group life insurance and other branches of life insurance, in spite of the explanation for what is term life insurance or the debate over different types of life insurance. The definition also helped to crystallize it as a distinct operation.

Of primary importance was the fact that an employer-employee group of sizable magnitude, rather than the individual, was the unit of selection for coverage. This provision has made it reasonably certain that both average mortality and a substantial saving in expenses will be experienced because of wholesale underwriting and administration.

In the absence of individual underwriting, and in order to preserve the essential simplicity of group life insurance, the amount issued to each employee was based on a uniform schedule according to employee classes. In general, the most satisfactory plan has been found to be one based on earnings in rather broad income groupings, because it is related to the employees’economic status and insurance needs.

The usual group life policy affords an employee leaving the service of the employer an option to obtain, without medical examination, some permanent form of individual insurance of not more than the face amount of the certificate, upon payment of the premium applicable to his age and class of risk at that time. Most group policies provided, moreover, that upon continued payment of the premium, employment may be deemed to continue indefinitely in the event of absence due to sickness or injury, and for a limited period during layoff or leave of absence.

The insurance also may be, and usually is, classified as “no exam life insurance,” like some other types of affordable life insurance, including term life insurance. Instead, the underwriting is determined by the size of the insured group (at least three fourths of those eligible, with a minimum of 50 lives), the findings of the inspection report on the group as a whole, and the statements of the writing agent and the employer. The only individual qualification usually required of the employee is that he be actively at work on the date his insurance becomes effective.

While the boundaries of the group insurance field were being surveyed and charted, the organization of the Group Division in the Metropolitan began to take a more concrete form. Mr. Kavanagh and his associate, Mr. A. C. Campbell, both of whom had been called to Washington in the service of the Government during the First World War, returned to the Home Office and energetically set about building the new Group Division.

Mr. J. M. Campbell returned from naval service and assumed responsibility for the development and operation of an efficient clerical and administrative staff. The year 1919 marked the real beginning of a coordi­nated and well considered effort, of which the organization of a specialized sales force was an essential feature.